Hong Kong one-mil coin on:
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The one mil coin was the smallest denomination of the
The obverse had denomination and country name in the
Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong ...
from 1863 to 1866, after this date it was no longer issued but may have circulated much longer. Its value was one tenth of a cent, or a thousandth of a dollar. It was minted by the Royal Mint, it features the Royal cypher of "VR", of the reigning monarch Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
at the time, but didn't feature a profile of the face of the monarch as all other coins did, due to the hole in the middle.
Design
The obverse had denomination and country name in the English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
. It featured the British crown and the initials 'VR' for ''Victoria Regina'' (Latin for Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
). While coins of the pound sterling
The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling ( symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling t ...
have the royal title written in Latin, this is the only use of Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
on British Hong Kong coins. Royal titles were written in English on its other coins.
The reverse had the denomination and country name written in Chinese. During the period 1863-1866, the characters on this side was written as Hong Kong One-wen (香港一文), resembling the Chinese currency of cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-im ...
at that time period. Among which, the 1866 One-wen is regarded as one of the rarest sample in Hong Kong coinage. Later on in 1866, the Chinese characters was altered to Hong Kong One-thousand (香港一千), indicating the value of a thousandth of a dollar.
Mintages
Hong Kong One-wen variation
1863: 19,000,000 1864: Unknown 1865: 40,000,000 (Two variations exist - one with a hyphen between HONG and KONG on the obverse, one without hyphen between the two words) 1866: Unknown (Regarded as one of the rarest coin in Hong Kong coinage. One of the samples is stored in the collection of theMelbourne Museum
The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, ...
.)
Hong Kong One-thousand variation
1866: 20,000,000See also
* Cash (Chinese coin)References